A wide variety of farinacious (starch and protein-based) snacks are presently available to consumers. Many of these snacks are in the form of chips, strips, or extruded tubular pieces. Some of these snacks are expanded or puffed and contain a cellular or honeycombed internal structure. Many of these conventional snacks have random or non-uniform shapes.
Consumers consider a number of factors when evaluating the desirability of a snack. In addition to taste and texture, visual appeal is an important consideration. Many consumers find snacks shaped into a design such as an animal, bird, or face, to be visually appealing and distinctive. This enhances their enjoyment of the snack. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide consumers with a snack that can be produced in a variety of eye-pleasing three- dimensional shapes. In particular, it would be desirable to provide consumers with a fried, extruded, three-dimensional snack having adjacent dough planes that articulate a design when the snack is viewed in cross-section.
Many problems are encountered when trying to make such a snack. The shape of the die and the size of the planes can present problems with shaping the dough as it emerges from the extruder. Furthermore, the dough shape must stay intact and not distort as the dough is fried. The finished snack must be strong enough to resist breakage, yet not too hard or brittle. The finished snack must also be crispy, crunchy, and thin.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a fried, extruded snack that can be produced in a variety of shapes, especially shapes where adjacent dough planes articulate a design when the snack is viewed in cross-section. It is also an object to provide a dough and a method for making the fried snack.